DTN Livestock Close: Lean Hog Futures Slam Sharply Higher

Lean hog contracts closed sharply higher, supported by more encouraging talk about improving U.S. and Chinese conditions and a late-week wave of technical-buying. The cattle complex also closed sharply higher thanks to late-week short-covering and spillover buying from the lean hog market.

GENERAL COMMENTS

A fairly active cattle market developed in the Northern tier Friday with dressed deals marked at mostly $173, roughly $2.50 lower. Live trading in the North was mostly marked at $109 to $110, generally $1 to $2 lower basis in Nebraska. On the other hand, cash business in the South remains rather slow as of this writing. Some live steers and heifers have sold at $110, $1 lower than last week.

The National hog base closed off $0.86 compared with the Prior Day settlement ($39 to $42, weighted average $42.33).

Corn futures closed a penny lower in late-week profit-taking. Having said that, the corn market generally enjoyed a week of recovery following the bearish reaction to the August 1 crop report. The stock market closed higher with the Dow up 110 points and the Nasdaq better by 9.